Beneath the Sword
by lms2457
Summary: She looks fragile and pale and just...battered. The image is burned into his mind, swirling with his conflicted emotions. But, she's alive. The thing that overrides all of it is that Kate will be all right. His wife will recover. This is a wildly different take on what would be 8x08 I guess. It was begun over the summer as a "What if" separation concept. Now very AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Beneath the Sword**

 **Disclaimer** _ **:**_ I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

 **AN** : This is a wildly different take on what would be 8x08 I guess. It was begun over the summer as a "What if" separation concept. Now very AU.

* * *

She looks fragile and pale and just...battered. The image is burned into his mind, swirling with his conflicted emotions. But, she's alive. Alive, but still unconscious. The doctors have said she'll be all right. He's shell shocked by most of what the doctors have said today, but the thing that overrides all of it is that Kate will be all right. His wife will recover.

Castle is so grateful for that, he aches with it. Keeps repeating the words to her, over and over, quiet and a little broken. She's okay. They're okay. He loves her and everything is going to be okay. He has the irrational hope that if he keeps repeating the words to her now, she might even believe them when she wakes up.

The only thing that he knows for sure is that he has finally convinced himself. That fact is ironic, because it has been his wish to avoid this very moment that has fed his anger and hurt over the past few weeks. But the sight of her like this has both broken and repaired something inside of him. Screw the whole damn mess. It's suddenly simple. He just wants Kate.

He can't stop touching her. That presents a set of challenges all on its own. He has to be careful, finding a way to hold her hand that won't cause pain to pulled ligaments and a hairline fracture. To stroke her hair without agitating bruised skin beneath. But he does it. Because when Kate Beckett wakes up, he needs her to know that he loves her.

"Everything is going to be all right, Kate. I promise. But I need you to wake up now. Please. I miss you."

He means every word of it. But he is still surprised when her eyelids flutter and he's suddenly staring into her clouded but beautiful hazel eyes.

* * *

The first thing she is aware of is a voice. Soft but constant, rising and falling with a one sided dialogue she can't quite decipher. Not the words, at least. Just a soft, warm cadence that she knows instinctively is Castle's.

Then she is aware of pain. She hurts. It isn't like the shooting, not centralized and overwhelming. It's more a generalized ache, a fog of pain. She has a fleeting thought of hanging off the side of a building, bruised from a lost hand to hand fight. For a moment, she wonders if she fell.

But memories quickly fall in place after that one. Three years since then. Three years with Castle since the night that she had been pulled from that roof and gone to him with a broken apology that had felt terrifyingly inadequate. And yet, as her eyes find his in the too bright room of the hospital for the first time, she feels like she is reliving that moment all over again.

"I'm sorry. Sorry, Castle. I -"

Her voice barely functions, and for moment she isn't sure he hears her. Her lips may be moving uselessly, voiceless. She tries to make the meaning clear in her eyes, just in case.

But when his blue eyes - she loves his eyes, she loves him - he's shaking his head and leaning in close.

"Shh...no. It's all right. Everything's all right, Kate," he says, his voice clearing.

Her throat is dry, burning. Her voice cracking. "Sorry, so -"

"Hey, no. Please don't cry. Kate, sweetheart you're going to make it worse." His fingers move gently, careful and tender as he tries to swipe at her tears. It makes the emotion swell, adds to her tears. She's been doing that a lot lately. Making it worse.

She sucks in a breath, realizes belatedly that Castle is still talking. That same constant, soft murmur she had woken to several moments before.

"I love you, Kate. I love you."

For the second time in her life, she thinks that those seven words might just save her. Might just save them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Beneath the Sword**

 **Disclaimer** _ **:**_ I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

 **AN** : This is a wildly different take on what would be 8x08 I guess. It was begun over the summer as a "What if" separation concept. Now very AU.

* * *

"Shh. Kate, no. It's - I'm sorry too. We both, I -" he sighs. "Don't worry about it right now, okay? It's all right. I understand."

He does. He didn't before, or maybe he hadn't wanted to before. He still doesn't like it. Not the situation and not the choices she has made. But he understands. He might have made similar choices. Honestly, maybe he already has.

He hadn't seen that similarity before. Maybe it was the anger and the fear crowding out reason. But he'd always believed that from here out, they would make choices together. Face even the horrors that cropped up in their lives as partners.

But in these last few hours, just sitting here watching his wife breathe, and knowing that for the absolute miracle that it is, he'd been thinking a lot. About the past, his choices, and his need to keep her safe.

He wants to tell her, but "You should rest," is what comes out of his mouth instead. She'll hurt more later, and the doctors are playing it safe with the drugs, being conservative.

She shakes her head. "Awake, now," she says, but her voice is still a dry, broken thing.

He realizes the need even before her eye slide to the cup on the small table beside her bead. As he holds it still for her, he finds himself saying, "Slowly, honey," even though he knows that she knows. The little endearments keep slipping out too, something about the fragility of this, of her in this place, making them come without real thought.

Whatever he might have said next is shelved, at least for a moment, when the nurse enters. For an instant, Castle dreads whatever the small blonde woman might say.

She only checks things over though. The IV fluids and the meds and Kate's vitals. She does say that she's pleased to see her charge awake, ask a few questions that he thinks are mostly to test Kate's memory and level of awareness.

"Doctor Miller will be in to see you in a while," she says as she goes, "but it might be a few, he's on an emergency."

Castle relaxes. Miller is the attending, not one of the specialists he's met today. He's relieved. If Kate is awake, solidly so, he wants to talk to her first, before the doctors get involved.

She breathes out, a little pained thing that he thinks might be relief. Grateful they are alone, probably. He doesn't blame her.

"I feel like I was run over by a train," she says, a little laugh in it that gets followed by a wince.

He smiles sadly, runs his fingers carefully through her hair again. Cautious, as always of hurting her more than she already was. "Not surprising," he says quietly. He is almost afraid to speak too loudly, as if that might be another source of pain.

"I don't know exactly what..." She trails off, and he sees her steady herself. Normally, he might see this as a moment to push her to accept more medication. Tonight, he doesn't dare. Instead he answers her unfinished question.

"There was an explosion. Well, series of them. You got trapped behind debris from the first, and we think that shielded you from the rest. Your hand has some strained ligaments, and there are some serious cuts and bruises on your head and face. You were out for a bit. But mostly you were lucky.

She doesn't say much as she takes the information in, he notices.

"Is it...are you safe here?" she asks. She hesitates as she poses the question, and he can't tell if that's caused by her injuries, or her expectation of his anger. But he smiles. Typical Beckett: apologetic, maybe, but not backing down.

He nods slowly. "Kate, everyone else in that room is dead. All accounted for, too. It's over, for now. You're all right though. Miraculously."

She's quiet after that. He keeps touching her. He can't seem to stop. His wife doesn't seem inclined to ask him to, and he's grateful. After several minutes, though, he finds himself still struggling to ask her - or maybe tell her - the one thing that he knows he has to put out there before the doctor comes in. She shouldn't hear this from anyone else.

"Kate. I need to ask you," he starts, and her mouth opens to reply before he can get any further, but he cuts her off. This is too important. "Before you, before we, ah shit." He looks away. He needs to get this out without making things worse. He takes a deep breath. "Did you know about the baby?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Beneath the Sword**

 **Disclaimer** _ **:**_ I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

 **AN** : This is a wildly different take on what would be 8x08 I guess. It was begun over the summer as a "What if" separation concept. Now very AU.

 **AN2:** I know The Hopeful Lights of Winter is running a little late, and I will get that sorted out later on today. But for now, because this one was ready to go and seeker15 asked so nicely.

* * *

Her eyes go wide even as her body goes cold. Blood rushes in her ears. "I what?" she asks. "Oh god."

She can't breathe. She's vaguely aware that the monitor beside her has picked up. Baby? She'd taken their baby into an explosion? And now, now. What is Castle trying to tell her?

"Kate," he says, his voice still lower than normal, but a little frantic now. "Please, calm down. Please."

Is he kidding? "Tell me," is all she manages to get out. "Just tell me." Is this her punishment? The ultimate irony?

"No. No, no. Kate, you're fine. You're both fine. I don't know how, but you kept the baby safe."

Everything inside of her seems to collapse. Blackness swims at the edge of her vision. She's not sure why it feels this way, why the relief feels too close to the way that she'd been sure the devastation might have felt if his answer had been different.

Without realizing that the thought had formed, never mind the words, she hears a strange version of her own voice say, over and over "too close, oh god too close..."

* * *

Castle has no idea how to comfort her, none. Because he feels no differently than she does. So he carries on as he has been, touches and nonsense words. He has nothing else.

When she quiets, so does he, just keeps them linked by touch as the silence grows.

He doesn't want to ask the question again, but she's not really answered him directly. And this is something he needs to know. That when she went, when she left on her own self sacrificial mission to protect their family, she hadn't willingly, knowingly, taken their child into the danger with her. Without even telling him. He has to know she didn't, as much as he wants to believe.

And so he steals himself, hoping that someday she will forgive him for even asking. "Kate, you didn't know?"

She turns slowly. Stares at him, unblinking. He wonders if he's broken this strained thread that holds them together completely, just by asking.

"Of course not." It comes out broken and raw. "Rick, my god, you can't think I would risk -"

Something smoldering inside of him finally cracks. It was what he had wanted to hear, and yet, it confirmed something deeper that has troubled him about her for much longer than just these last two months.

"Just you, then," he says and it's a darker thing than he wants it to be. She's hurt. She's alive and carrying his child and he's so grateful he could fall to he knees and weep. And yet. "Damn it, Kate. You aren't expendable. Not to me. And a baby doesn't change that."

Her head is shaking back and forth, and he can see the plea in her eyes. Not now, please not now.

"They're sure? That the baby wasn't? Is it really all right? You'd tell me?"

He can see the tears forming in her eyes again and the anger in him drains away again. She's right. This isn't the time. So he just nods, weighing the desire to hold her against the risk of aggravating her injuries. He settles for shifting carefully to sit beside her on the bed, leaning carefully over her.

"Yes, of course. The theory is that you were cut off from the worst of it by the first explosion, that you ended up in - I don't know how to - some kind of air pocket. You were knocked out, and the scrapes and bruises, the rest of it, was getting you out. But it was like somehow, everything seemed to go out of its way not to do abdominal damage. They ran tests, said I could stay, but I didn't want to do it without you. They'll be more now that you're awake, but there was a specialist called in and he swears everything looks good. I promise, Kate. We're all fine. It's over, for now, and everyone is safe.

She cries, and he slides his arms around her carefully. He can't stop thinking that the salt must sting horribly on her wounded face, bandages over the worst or not. But she cries anyway, and this time he lets her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Beneath the Sword**

 **Disclaimer** _ **:**_ I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

 **AN** : This is a wildly different take on what would be 8x08 I guess. It was begun over the summer as a "What if" separation concept. Now very AU.

* * *

It ends up taking several hours for the doctor to get to them. He takes a certain amount of comfort in the fact that they aren't a priority. His family is stable. Which in and of itself is a gift as far as he is concerned.

But he knows that the waiting makes Kate restless. She wants - no, this is Beckett, she needs - details. She needs facts, evidence, proof. To know beyond a doubt, first that their child is healthy, and then that the rest of their family is safe.

He doesn't blame her. Not for that. But he tries to soothe her into resting while they wait. It's difficult. Probably in part because of the lingering pain keeping her alert. But now that she knows about the baby, he knows that she won't ask for more pain relief. If anything, he bets she'll refuse her next doses. He sighs.

"What?" she asks, and he can tell she's a little amused at his expression. He will take the win where he can.

He gives her a look that's a little frustrated, a little put upon, but it's an act, a tease, and he makes sure she can see that. "You're a pain, but I love you."

The point had been to get a smile from her, maybe an eye roll. But she regards him seriously, her eyes clear of the cloud of pain that has hung over her since she woke up. "I know," she says, all solemn sincerity. "I love you too." She takes a beat, a breath and then adds, "You know that, right, Castle?"

"Of course," he says immediately. His voice sounds thick and strange to his own ears.

"Rick."

He looks up, all of it there for her, love, pain, confusion - the whole seemingly hopeless mess.

"I love you. That was my reason. I know you can't understand that right now. But I love you, and our family. Not just -" she makes a formless gesture around herself, meant to indicate the baby, he assumes. "You made me a part of your family, Rick, and I love it. Martha and Alexis, you and me. It's more then I ever thought I could have. More than I'm willing to risk.

The words hover dark and a little bitter on his tongue. But you left us, is what he wants to say. But then the doctor is there, and the focus shifts in the room. He grips his wife's good hand in support, doesn't say it.

* * *

She doesn't even know whether to be grateful or dismayed at the interruption. There is so much they need to say, but she's tired and worried. She needs to hear something about the baby.

The doctor explains that they had run the hormone test as a routine precaution. Her levels were high, indicative to a strong pregnancy. There was no evidence of trauma in an area that might be a threat to the baby, and the OBGYN they had called in was pleased with her initial exam. They were going to do an ultrasound shortly, just to be sure.

Kate digested it all as quickly as she could with her head throbbing as it was. She needed to sleep, but knew that she wouldn't. Not until after the ultrasound. Not until she saw for herself.

"What about the rest?" She hears her husband ask. His voice seems to come from far away, underwater. She forces herself back to the present.

"Mostly superficial, though of course the abrasions will need to be monitored for infection as they heal, we don't see a concussion necessarily, but given that Mrs. Castle did lose consciousness after the event, we're going to keep her overnight for monitoring, just to be safe. And we'll have someone come down from the rehabilitation department, take a look at that hand. It should heal in time, but given that it is the dominant hand, and in view of your occupation," he says with a glance at Kate, "we can't be too careful, and it's much better to be proactive."

They thank him, and he leaves with a parting word that someone will be in about her ultrasound shortly. That makes her mouth go dry and her breath catch, the very thought of the reality of this baby. She didn't know. How has she not known, in what, eight weeks, given their time apart?

"Were you sick at all?" Castle asks, his voice sympathetic even as she startles. She must have said that aloud without even realizing it.

She glances over at her husband, nervous for reasons that she doesn't even fully understand right now.

"I...no. Not like, I mean not like you hear people talk about. I was exhausted, and now that I think about it, I had this general queasiness that never seemed to go away. Made the idea of food distasteful, but then I'd be starving. But I just...we were a mess and the world was coming apart and I just assumed that was it." She feels like a terrible parent already, because she just hadn't put it together.

"At least I swore off coffee," she says without thinking.

He coughs next to her. She gives him a soft look of apology, but he surprises her. "Yeah, me too," he says. "Though replacing it with scotch probably wasn't my brightest choice." His eyes go wide as he says it, and she isn't sure for a moment if he's thinking about how she'll take that because of her dad, or if he's wondering if she's been drinking her own way through this separation.

"My drug was work," she assures him, although, shit that's not much better. She sighs and lays a hand on the unchanged plane of her abdomen. "Sorry, baby, I'll do better." She means both of them, she wants to do better by him, too, and she locks her eyes on his to be sure that he can see it.

He reaches for her good hand and squeezes, a gesture that she thinks - hopes - is both acceptance and a promise of his own.

She's torn between exhaustion and all the things that they need to say. What needs to be said and done to bridge the space that has opened up between them over these last weeks. She doesn't want reconciliation to be about the emotions of injury and near death and a baby. It needs to be about them. But she's so damn tired. Caught between healing herself and healing them, which feels frighteningly familiar.

Castle tugs on her hand, and she turns. His eyes look down at her, so full of all that familiar love and devotion that she tears up again. "Sleep, Kate," is all that he says.

She does.


	5. Chapter 5

**Beneath the Sword**

 **Disclaimer** _ **:**_ I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

 **AN** : This is a wildly different take on what would be 8x08 I guess. It was begun over the summer as a "What if" separation concept. Now very AU.

* * *

He wasn't at all prepared for this. True, he has been having that feeling a lot lately. But on the list of things that Richard Castle was not prepared for, this is definitely the top of the list.

He has seen sonogram pictures before. He'd seen the ones Meredith had with Alexis, but he hadn't been in the room. He can't remember why, now. Just that he rarely knew about her doctor visits until after the fact. He doesn't even remember minding. God, his twenties were a blur before the birth of his daughter.

So, yeah, he had not been even remotely prepared for this. The movement of the image on the screen isn't at all clear to him. It's still early, about nine weeks, he thinks.

That doesn't stop Kate from staring intently, her good hand clenched firmly in his. He knows she's tense, desperate to know for herself that their child is really fine, has survived all of the danger and the strife.

And yes, he's concerned, but the doctors have said that things are fine. So, he gives himself over mostly to the sensation of stunned awe. Because it's Kate, and him, and if you had asked him a week ago, this would be the last place he would have said he expected to be right now.

"And there we are," the doctor says pointing out a specific segment of the hazy image on the screen. "Everything looks good, as expected and on schedule." The doctor smiles at them. "One tough little kid there, I can tell already."

"Get's that from mom," Castle says, even as his wife fairly sags back on the bed with relief and squeezes his hand. He squeezes back.

"Now, it's a bit early yet, but sometimes, if we're lucky, and baby and nature feel like cooperating with our technology..." The doctor moves the scanner and flips a switch on the machine. The quite of the room suddenly evaporates.

Castle is sure that the doctor makes some sort of affirmative comment at his success, but it goes unheard. What he does here is Kate's gasp. For a moment, she's transfixed by the monitor, but then she has turned to him, crying. From the way her image blurs, he assumes he is too. But still, it's several long seconds before he even registers the sound of his own voice amid the sound of their child's heartbeat. Still, he realizes, he has said the same thing several times now. "Oh, Kate. Oh my god. Kate." He's so damn filled with stunned gratitude right now that nothing else makes sense.

The doctor gives them a few moments, then pronounces that everything seems in order here, too. One healthy baby, with a top notch guardian angel is how the man puts it. He orders the tech to make them several printouts and a video before leaving the stunned parents be.

For several minutes, they stare at each other in silence. He doesn't even have to ask to know that Kate is replaying the sound in her mind, just like he has been.

And as strange as it seems as oddly as the whole thing fits together, he finds himself saying the first thing that comes to his mind, "Thank you."

Kate startles. "I - Rick, I should be...I don't deserve that," she whispers. The elation has gone from her eyes and now she just looks haunted.

Even though he believes that she is sorry, that she regrets all the difficulty they've been through, he knows she also stands by whatever it is she thinks the reasoning is for her decision. He knows Kate, knows where the guilt is really coming from.

"Kate, first, look: I have my issues with how you've handled all of this. We have a lot to," he pauses, thinks. "We have a lot of work to do. And yes, I'm mad, and I'm hurt. But you didn't put our child at risk on purpose. The situation wasn't your fault."

"You just think that how I handled it was, and maybe it was. But," her eyes are pleading with him, "Castle, I had no good choices."

He remembers rationalizing that to himself, when Alexis was taken. Remembers offering those words in feeble explanation as they lay in bed together after it was all over.

He wants to be madder still at her, for throwing his own words back at him. But, they've served their purpose, as a reminder. He's been here too. But he has a few things to remind her of as well.

"Except we're always better together, Kate. You told me that, and you were right. And you made me promise never to go off on my own like that again. I honored that, Kate."

She swallows, then nods. "Up to the point that we've never really had to test it, yes. But if you were in my position -"

His voice raises just a bit. "How am I supposed to know that, Kate? You won't share with me, won't show me, what the hell is going on."


	6. Chapter 6

**Beneath the Sword**

 **Disclaimer:** I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

 **REMINDER:** This was begun over the summer as a "What if" separation concept. Now very AU.

* * *

Frustration tears at her. "No, not our family. The equanimity of our marriage, maybe. But nothing has ever been more important to me than this family."

He huffs at her "Stop trying to distract me with your vocabulary, Beckett."

She closes her eyes. "Could you please be serious?"

"I'm dead serious," he says, insistent. "But I love you, you're having a baby with me, so things are a little messy."

Well, there is no way that she can argue with that. She relaxes, just a little, let's him hold her hand. She hasn't told him, shown him everything they got. But there are some things he shouldn't have in his head. She doesn't want them in hers either. But that was a choice with a price. And now there's a baby and she doesn't know where they are anymore.

"Kate?" he asks. She looks up. "If we had known about the baby, how would you have handled it?"

He has to know at least part of the answer. She just wishes she knew the rest of it, had more to give him.

"I don't know Castle," she says honestly. Tiredness is beginning to show in her voice, she knows. They really have to stop going over the same section of argument, but she has no idea how to get through it. "Differently," she admits. Because honestly that's the only thing they both know.

She watches the frustration slide over his face, knows it's coming. It's OK, she's ready for it. Ready for him to be angry. He's been so sweet and relieved and happy and a wonderful husband these last several hours. But she's always known the anger, real anger coming.

But to her surprise, all he does is sigh, as if blowing himself out. "That's the part I have trouble dealing with," he says softly.

"What?" She asks, genuinely confused. Really she wishes he would just get mad at her and get it over with and they could talk about it to the point where they would both know where they stood. Exactly how much it would take for them to get back to their lives. If they could.

But her husband shakes his head. "It doesn't matter right now, it can wait. You're tired, it's been a long day. We can talk more about all this when you're home."

That stuns her completely into a momentary silence. "When you come home," hangs over the room like an offer of peace between them that her weary mind can hardly process. "Won't Martha and Alexis..." She doesn't know how much the two know about what's going on, but she knows that they can't be pleased with her right now.

"They'll be fine, Kate. They're -"

The door opens, cutting him off. Kate is really starting to see the wisdom in waiting to have this discussion later, if they are just going to keep getting interrupted by nurses and doctors, to say nothing of her own damned fatigue.

"Katherine, dear, oh thank goodness. We've been so worried about you," Martha's voice carries into the room ahead of her, seeming louder for the low, careful tone Castle has been trying to keep.

"They're here," Castle says as the two redheads enter. She's relieved at the surprise in his tone. He hadn't expected them anymore than Kate had.

Martha stops short, Alexis hovering beside her. "Oh my lord. Katherine, what on earth -"

It dawns on Kate for the first time in hours how she must look to the others. Bruising and abrasions they had said. Mostly on her head and face. She must look a mess, but she hasn't seen it. Her only measure has been Castle, and despite everything, he's been the adoring husband from the moment she awoke.

"It's all right Martha. I didn't take the worst of it really."

Her mother-in-law sighs, and reaches over to give her careful and slightly awkward hug. "I'm assuming you're medicated right now, dear heart, so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you don't realize that that is not a comforting statement," Martha says, looking her over slowly.

God, she must really look awful then.

Suddenly the older woman turns to Castle. "When can she come home?" She asks. Her voice is firm and deliberate, and from the wide-eyed and look on her husband's face, Kate is guessing that there is a death glare to go with it.

"We were just discussing that," Castle says quietly. "The doctors want to keep her overnight for observation, but as soon as they release her tomorrow." Kate stifles a laugh. Apparently she didn't have to worry about her mother-in-law's reaction to her return to the loft.

She turns to look quickly at Alexis as Castle speaks, in case it turns out that his daughter is another matter entirely. She's surprised to find that the young redheaded smiling. But when she catches Kate looking, she bites her lip and waves. Well, she isn't sure exactly what that means but she's glad at least that it isn't open hostility. After the couple of weeks they've had, it very well could have been. She wonders suddenly how much Castle has told them. How he has spun this separation for his family. Their family.

"Well darling what can we feed you until you get out of this godforsaken place? You look as if you could use a bit of something."

Kate startles because of all of the things that her mother-in-law could've said in that moment, that wasn't what she was expecting. She clears her throat. "Um, honestly I don't know. If there are any restrictions I mean."

"You should eat," Castle says from where he now stands beside her bed. If any of the others catch the loaded meaning in his glance, no one says anything.

Still, it makes Kate feel a bit awkward. Now that everyone is here she feels like they should tell them, and she doesn't even know where to begin. One moment they were… whatever this nightmare has been. Now there is a baby. And they'll have to explain it all to their family. Her dad. Oh god, her dad.

"Castle," she says urgently, "Did you call my dad? Somebody should get in touch with him, let him know before it gets out on the news or something that I was there." Holy shit, there was a bomb, and since she woke, she's been so wrapped up in Castle and the baby, she hadn't even thought to ask about her father.

"He was in Atlanta, for a case. I called and he said he's wrapping up, going to see if he can get a flight back tonight," Castle says, leaning forward like he wants to calm her but doesn't know what to do with his hands.

Martha looks at her watch. "It's after seven, Richard, maybe you should try getting in touch. If he takes a late flight, he may need a ride here. I'll check on any food restrictions. Goodness knows you shouldn't eat the hospital food if you can avoid it. It'll be the death of you, most likely."

Alexis speaks up quickly, and Kate wonders if maybe it's a little too quickly. "I can stay with Kate," she says brightly.


End file.
